Pandemic Living

Recent weeks mired in the mess of a global pandemic have basically meant an upheaval of life as we know it. For some of us.

What I mean by that is that as a professional artist, introvert, (okay,  add Scorpio to the list of offenses), and general homebody, the idea of staying/working/eating/exercising/existing from home is, by no means a stretch. It's actually pretty routine for me, (and many of my introverted artist friends!). Don't get me wrong, I love to explore, interact with other humans, get fresh air as much as the next person. But doing all the major things of life from home is not uncommon for me, it's sometimes preferred. I rarely experience "cabin fever" because home is my sanctuary, and the outside world is a beautiful, wild and wooly bonus. So for the most part, the past couple weeks has not been a difficult transition for me.

I'm writing this post for the sake of remembering later what was going through my mind at the time (since, as a society, we often ask ourselves and others "how did you feel during [insert major event here]?" and, "what were you experiencing?". In the case of, say, my niece who is an infant at this writing, asking, "what was it like?", or me or my other family trying to recall, there's something here in black and white. Also, I hoped that sharing some of the things that have been keeping me busy might inspire someone else, especially anyone who may be lonely or experiencing some adverse emotions as a result of these strange times. Sidenote: this post was actually written over the course of some busy weeks in my studio, so it's been tweaked and twerked, revisited, and a few times almost deleted (because, really, who reads? 🙋‍♀️) before it finally went live, so if anyone actually makes it through to the end and comments, wow!

I'm fortunate to be able (at least in part) to work from home. All of my creative work for my online outlets, commissions, etc. is done from my home studio where I have my art supplies, tools, and devices used for photography, content management, shipping, the entire list of tasks. So first and foremost, the work associated with keeping my art business going takes up a lot of time that I might otherwise spend being anxious, bored, whatever. I've thankfully had ongoing commissions to keep me busy, but I also try to continuously create fresh work to share and add to my stores online. There are always ideas waiting in the wings.

Beyond that, I have a laundry list of other things I am doing or could do with spare time on my hands, which, unlike what feels like the rest of the known world, I don't seem to have that much of. There is truth to the idea that when you work from home, it's easy to become a workaholic. I find excuses to complete tasks at all times of the day or night just to "knock them off the list". So everyone talking about naps and puzzles and Netflix binges kinda makes me jealous, tbh.

ANYway, back to topic: pandemics, daily life, coping. In short, since this thing began, I've taken healthy doses of news to keep on top of the latest developments. But I've also consciously put limits on soundbytes that will only lead to stress and anxiety, done my own research, and upped my (already bordering on OCD) cleaning and disinfecting practices. I mean, I wiped my groceries down as a rule before any of this (don't judge me).

As I write this, the governor of my state (Georgia) has recently (about a week ago now) lifted the lockdown to allow many businesses to reopen. I will, however, be continuing to take precautions for my safety and the safety of my loved ones. See: What happened when we went back to business as usual during the 1918 Spanish Flu.

I believe this is a personal choice, the government doesn't always get it right, and and we should each take the facts and make our own decision. So I'm going with better safe than sorry. 

As far as mental and physical health go, I'm trying to be sure to give myself down time, spend time connecting with loved ones, and practicing self care. I've said this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on reading, learning new skills, and personal care. Exercise, prayer and meditation, favorite beauty treatments. And I am finding time to do some of those things.

And now, for the sake of time (because one of my hands is actually holding a heat gun aimed at some paper mache as I type), and because this post is getting way longer than I pictured when I started it, we are going to shift into list mode. Some things I'm doing at home during the pandemic:

some of my green goodies

1. Working on my "victory garden", which contains mostly edibles and some companion flowers. This has definitely helped my peace of mind, not to mention my meal planning, lol.

2. Baking, doing old favorites and new. I baked my very first loaf bread the second week of madness, when there was NO sandwich bread in stores. 

I 💗 fresh baked bread!

And tried a few of the recipes 

going viral online.

"dalgona" whipped coffee- new obsession

3. I've been juicing and doing intermittent fasting.

         

watermelon lime juice

carrot ginger apple!

4. Limiting trips (to the store or anywhere), always wearing 

a mask, and taking a shower as soon as I get home.

yes, a little scary, but what's the point
of makeup behind a mask!

5. Fixing up, making things nicer at home.

fresh rhododendrons

6. Checking in regularly with myself and loved ones to ensure 

I'm okay/ they're okay. Paying attention to how I feel.

Looking for ways to help others.

And since I'm sure I've maxed out bandwidth loading images on this page, 

just a few more, no pics...

7. Fixing things that were broken, had holes, whatever

8. Researching new fun sounding places to explore and adding them to my "want to go" folder in Google Maps

9. Rearranging kitchen cabinets and organizing appliance manuals

10. Writing cards and letters to mail

11. Planning some virtual events I'm excited to share soon

12. Took a webinar class

13. Catching up on reading

14. Catching up on watching my YouTube playlists

16. Research. So. Much. Research. On everything. 

18. Purging crap I don't need or want

19. Planning ways to finish old projects

20. Reminding people they are awesome

21. Saying affirmations

22. Trying new food combos

23. Having impromptu solo fashion shows, where I put cute outfits together from my closet (nowhere to go, but hey!)

24. Taking drives just to see new stuff (from the safety of my car)

25. Making lists

26. Doing random sets of reps. You know, abs, legs, glutes

27. Window shopping online, adding more stuff to all my virtual shopping carts for later

28. Knitting 

29. Trying to go easy on myself, give myself a break. Because I tend to feel I need to be going hard with my work everyday, and forget I need a day off sometimes!

30. Praying

31. Doing administrative stuff for my business (it's all on me, honey)

32. Housework, cleaning

33. Stopping. And noticing. 

took a shower, spotted a rainbow

I hope, in my own clumsy way, I've provided some context of these times, inspiration, and ideas for staying sane and productive, even if ultimately your list looks drastically different from mine. How are you coping? I'd love to read in comments!